Category Archives: Research & Reflection

The list below is showing a range of art book fairs, both independent publishers and independent designers and artists. Research the book fairs online and explore the wide range of books by independent publishers, to gain a better understanding of the variety of books and publishing possibilities. You might want to visit one of theContinue reading “Research Task 1: Book Fairs”

Brief: Find two artists’ books that you feel demonstrate an interesting relationship between their form and content through the materials that the artist has chosen to use. Reflect on these books in your learning log. La Prose du Transsibérien et de la petite Jehanne de France by Blaise Cendrars and Sonia Delaunay-Terk 1913 This artist bookContinue reading “Research Task: Exploring Artists’ Books”

As a student on this course you have access to Bridgeman and Oxford Art Online image libraries, which are a wonderful resource. If you haven’t already done so, spend some time finding your way around the Bridgeman Art Library and Oxford Art Online. You can access these through your OCA/UCA library access via the OCAContinue reading “Research Task 3: Sourcing Images”

In Exercise 3, you have to choose a typeface for the text, but how do you choose a typeface? In Notes on Book Design, Derek Birdsall describes clearly how you can choose a typeface that is appropriate for your text. Read the section ‘on choosing a typeface’ in the book, Notes on Book Design, andContinue reading “Research Task 2: Choosing A Typeface”

The Golden Section, or Golden Mean, has been applied by artists and designers over the centuries to create harmonious formats for their work. In his extensive research, Tschichold discovered that many book designers were based on the Golden Section. Based on a mathematical formula, and directly linked to the Fibonacci series, the Golden Selection providesContinue reading “Research Task 1: The Golden Section”

Brief: Further inform your understanding of paper and bookbinding by reading pages 165-180 of Alan Pipes’ chapter ‘On Press’. Collect lots of different paper samples, and assemble these into a standalone book, or integrate them into your sketchbook. See this as the start of an ongoing resource that you can add to, and refer backContinue reading “Research Task: Paper and bookbinding”

Brief: Familiarise yourself with the terminology used in describing the anatomy of a book and write some brief notes in your learning log on how the various structural elements could be modified to reflect the book’s function. The anatomy of a book: Head Spine Tail Pages/leaves: The printed pages are usually folded into signatures, beforeContinue reading “Research task: Book Terminology”